Back with another lesser-known real design, this time it's the M1895 Lee-Navy rifle, a turn of the century straight pull that saw use with the US Navy as a shipboard weapon. It's a rather unique gun since it's origins are as an anti-torpedo boat gun, thus the high velicty 6mm cartridge designed to have long range and penetrate thick wooden or steel siding of a small, fast torpedo craft. Obviously stopping a torpedo boat with a rifle was hugely impractical and only became moreso as torpedo range increased and the boats go bigger, but these weapons remained on US ships to arm guards for a few years before they were phased out in favor of the more universal Krag rifles. Very interesting design, as far as I'm aware the upwards camming straight pull is totally unique to this particular weapon. The high velocity 6mm (the lightest rounds it could fire traveled at a blistering 3300 fps, and heaviest still had an impressive 2560 fps muzzle velocity) is very reminiscent of more modern cartridges and certainly seems ahead of it's time. Indeed, the excessive wear it incurred on the rifle was one of the reasons it was withdrawn from service as it was just too much for metallurgy of the day to handle. Very happy with how the drawing turned out and am looking forward to posting my next project here soon.

M1903 Air Service rifle:
Issued to airmen, with a shortened handguard and a fixed 25-round box magazine

M1903 Springfield/Guiberson Periscope rifle:
Designed as a way to compact a periscope system into a standard rifle, the Guiberson Periscope has a button that allows the rifle to raise out of its stock in order to aim above a trench wall, as seen here in the Springfield Armory Museum. It never saw use during WWI.